Hank's Honey Habanero Hot Sauce Review

Hank Sauce Honey Habanero

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ThCNF9-W68

I must admit to some confusion with this sauce. There is something wrong with it and I can't quite put my finger on it. As fantastic as the Hank's Heat (SOTY contender, reviewed elsewhere on this site) was, this should have been that much better, combining, as it was, Habanero and honey, two ingredients that go together magically...if done right. I suppose that goes with all excellent combinations...has to be done correctly. The ingredients between the Heat and this are also quite close. 

The start of both (and apparently all of their sauces) is the Hank's Base, a sauce which I wish they would sell by itself. It is a Louisiana-style, probably Cayenne-based sauce, which is a bold choice to use as a platform for some of the other variations. From there, both have wine and garlic, though for this one, honey and Habanero are moved up in the ingredient list before those other two. After that, the Heat has Basil, while this one has olive oil, butter, cilantro, and more salt rounding out things. This should have been a creamier, sweeter, perhaps slightly hotter version of the Heat, but it is not. 

The actual heat of both is fairly minimal. This one is slightly hotter, but not egregious in heat even remotely. It, despite having other ingredients come before it, is intensely garlic-heavy and there is an underlying bitterness to it that I find baffling, and unpleasant. Instead of an upgrade to a SOTY contender, we have a significant and quite surprising downgrade. Is it the olive oil, possibly? I'm not a fan of that solo, but I find the taste of it generally to be fairly mild and there are far stronger flavors present. The butter? The cilantro, a flavor aspect which is as absent as the sweetness? I can't quite put my finger on it, after working through a good half of the bottle, which involves plenty of agitation before usage. I had initially thought that I might be seeing a repeat of last year with Gindo's, in which two of their sauces are competing for SOTY, and that everything they do is a magical wonderland, but nope. This is a pronounced and substantial fall from the Heat that I'm at a loss to entirely understand. 

Bottom line: This is a sauce that works best if used in things, preferably things that already have or are consistent with the use of either a Cajun or Louisiana-style sauce. By itself, the flavor deficiencies become more pronounced, but for those who prefer intensely garlic-heavy sauces, definitely worth a look.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 3
            Flexibility: 2
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 2

Overall: 2